Pease airport projects move forward

PORTSMOUTH — Two companion projects — one civilian and one military — are moving forward at the Portsmouth International Airport at Pease.

Paul Briand

PORTSMOUTH — Two companion projects — one civilian and one military — are moving forward at the Portsmouth International Airport at Pease.

U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen announced recently that funding for infrastructure improvements at the New Hampshire Air National Guard base at the facility has been included in a funding bill that has cleared the full Senate Appropriations Committee.

As well, according to airport manager Bill Hopper, the state, the Pease Development Authority, Federal Aviation Administration and the Air Guard are "working out the details" of a planned $20 million reconstruction of the airport tarmac.

The military project is being done in anticipation of arrival of KC-46A planes from Boeing, the new-generation in-flight refueling tanker.

According to Shaheen, the appropriations bill approved by the committee will specifically support three facility construction projects at Pease, which was selected as the first Air National Guard unit to receive the new tankers to replace the current fleet of 1950s era KC-135s.

"The development of the KC-46A project is important for our national security, Pease Air National Guard Base, and New Hampshire's economy as a whole," Shaheen said. "The facility construction resources we included today will help prepare the base for the new aircraft and will move the project forward."

The Air Force project for the 64th Air Refueling Squadron at Pease is estimated to create 100 jobs and invest millions in New Hampshire's economy, according to Shaheen's office.

Hopper said the tarmac reconstruction project will be completed in time to accommodate the arrival of the new tankers in 2018.

Each of the agencies involved in the project has a set of criteria that must be agreed to for the project to begin, as well as securing funding, 90 percent of which will come from the FAA, 5 percent from the PDA, and 5 percent from the state.

The project is expected to take two years and will have an effect on airport operations, according to Hopper, though the sheer size of the tarmac will allow some work-arounds for flight operations during the construction.

Hopper described the project as "replacing what's already in place. What we're doing with the runway will not operationally change it."

The runway is 11,321 feet long, making it one of the longest in the region. It was on the list of East Coast landing sites in the event of an emergency landing by the space shuttle when that NASA program was active until 2011.

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